Falls prevention strategies form a significant part of recent government policy relating to older people. In this article we report a qualitative study to examine the extent to which older people are willing to adopt any of the following strategies in order to avoid falling: balance and lower limb strengthening exercises, home safety advice, and ‘taking care’. A sample of community-dwelling inpatients who were more or less afraid of falling were interviewed. Some older people blamed their own unsafe behaviour rather than hazards in their home for falls, so taking care (moving slowly, holding on, being vigilant to and avoiding danger) was a widespread strategy. The benefits of exercise in falls prevention were poorly understood and there was little enthusiasm for exercising especially if it was perceived to be inappropriate in old age or painful. Awareness of home hazards and taking measures against them was common but home visits tended to be regarded as intrusive. Inadequate negotiation about adaptations was widespread and led to resentment and unwillingness to cooperate. Building on the widespread ‘taking care’ strategy may help educate older people in safe behaviour. Health professionals should encourage older people to exercise and when making home safety visits should confer with their clients, taking their preferences about adaptations into account.

This article presents a correspondence between the mode of weapons acquisition by armed opposition groups and the form of a civil war. The mode of arms acquisition is affected by two factorsFavailability and control over the acquisition process. Variations in the mode of arms acquisition correspond to three types of insurgency: led by a single and organized group, warlordism, and disorganized armed bands. This article discusses how weapons acquisition is considered in the existing literature on arms and civil conflict, and examines the definitions of arms availability. It provides new insights on the availability and control of weapons in civil conflict and provides examples from Nepal, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The article concludes with an examination of the policy implications of its findings.

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The 2011 Libyan civil war prompted a reassessment of the normative foundation of the EU's conventional arms export control regime as armaments manufactured in Europe were used by Gaddafi's forces during the war. The EU's foreign policy identity is based, partly, upon a common approach to arms export involving respect for common criteria for export licences. Yet, prior to the civil war, considerable amounts of military equipment had been exported by member states to Libya, notwithstanding grounds for restraint on the basis of several of the criteria. This article traces member states' arms export to Libya during 2005-2010 to explore whether member states favoured restraint or export promotion. It concludes that although aware of the risks of exporting, in a competitive market for military goods, member states sought commercial advantage over restraint, and comprehensively violated export control principles. This casts doubts on assertions of the EU acting as a "normative power".

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